Documents FAQ

Starting August 24, 2026, we're rolling out a brand new document editing and annotation experience in Showbie, introducing a faster, more reliable document editor with an expanded toolkit designed for flexibility and precision.

Our new document editor features an annotation toolbar that includes more options to tailor the essential tools you need to bring documents to life to communicate with learners, share feedback or demonstrate concepts.

Whether you want more flexibility to create shapes or add images to a document, or you need more precision in digital ink or text formatting, you'll have a ton of new options to mark up resources, engage your learners, and capture student understanding.

From August 24th onwards, any new documents you create will automatically use our new document editing and annotation toolkit.

We know how important these tools are to the work you and your students do every day in and out of class. We’ve collected A LOT of feedback from teachers and students about ways to improve essential document editing tools; everything from images on documents to more fonts and colours, to better shape tools and clearer indicators that work has been saved. We read every one - a few times over.

Choosing to fully rebuild the document editing and annotation toolkit was a big decision, and we’ve been working hard over the summer months to have this toolkit ready for the start of the new school year. A full rebuild now gives us a stronger foundation and the most flexibility for tomorrow.

We’re excited to be able to offer you and your students a more modernised and more versatile experience that balances the user-friendly design that you and your students expect from Showbie. Plus, rebuilding our document editing and annotation toolkit has allowed us to add a bunch of entirely new features and functionality so you can go even further with documents.

All the same digital annotation and markup tools you already know and love — just better! We’re supercharging the annotation toolbar with enhanced formatting and customisation options, so you can choose colours, typefaces, sizes, alignment, shading, pen styles and presets you need to bring resources to life.

And it gets even better…we’re also adding some awesome brand-new features to the document editing and annotation toolkit. Here's what else is new:

Just as they do now, students have the same annotation toolkit as teachers, except for the ability to screen record. Screen recording (available on iOS) is a teacher-only feature that saves video clips to the teacher's Materials folder.

Rebuilding the document editing and annotation is a big update! As such, we're launching the new toolkit as a Beta feature. We expect to make refinements based on real classroom feedback.

During the Beta period, you might notice occasional rough edges, and some documents may briefly show a "converting" status right after you copy a large assignment, folder, or class. We'll keep refining the experience and will share updates as we go.

Your existing documents, created in our old document editor (we’ll call these legacy documents), keep working exactly as they do today, in the familiar editor you already know - no changes, no action required on your part. You can continue using legacy documents alongside new documents.

Yes! Alongside our new document editor, we’re enabling you to convert legacy documents from day one. The only time a legacy document moves to the new editor is if you copy it. You can copy-to-convert a single document, a whole assignment, a folder or a class.
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Here's how to get the new editor toolkit on your legacy documents:

Both new documents and copied legacy documents will use the new experience, while your original document stays exactly where it is, in its original format.

Only newly created documents use the new experience by default. You maintain full control over which documents you move to the new editor and when.

No. Converting legacy documents is entirely up to you. Your existing documents will continue to work exactly as they do now, and you can keep annotating and using them without any changes, but you won’t have all the enhanced tools in our new document editor.

If you often reuse materials from previous years’ classes, they will convert to the new editor as you copy them. The only time your legacy documents will be converted to the new editor is if you choose to copy them - as a single document, or as part of an assignment, folder, or class copy.

Simply copy the document - whether it's a single document, a whole assignment, a folder, or a whole class. When you use the copy function on a legacy document, the copied version will automatically be updated to the new document editor.

The original legacy document remains unchanged and continues to work exactly as it does today. Only the copy you create will use the new editor.

You can convert multiple files at once by copying documents at the assignment, folder, or class level - every document included in that copy will convert to the new editor.

Once a document is copied to the new editor, it cannot be reverted to the old editor. However:

There isn't one anymore - and that's intentional. Our new document editing experience saves your work continuously and automatically as you go! Plus, a new sync status indicator will display as you make edits to confirm that your changes have saved, so you and your students can complete work confidently without having to remember to hit Done before moving on.

Nothing! They'll remain accessible just as they are today. Students can continue to view and work with legacy documents without any changes.

Yes. Existing documents, annotations, and student work aren't going anywhere - legacy documents remain fully accessible after the launch of the new document editing experience. All your feedback and student responses stay exactly where they are.

Annotation History is a new feature built inside the document, giving you a clearer record of edits over time within a document. In-document annotation history is brand new: you can view and delete individual timestamped entries, but you can't yet reorder annotations or edit a past entry from the history panel.

Yes, there are some minor differences. Web offers more granular editing controls, including the ability to rotate, duplicate, and add new pages to an existing document. While the iOS app features the ability to screen record from a document.

When you copy a single legacy document, the conversion to the new editor happens automatically. The copy is created in the new document editor, while your original document remains unchanged as a legacy document. This is the primary way to bring legacy documents into the new editor experience.

Yes. Copying an entire assignment, folder, or class will automatically convert every document in that copy to the new editor, available starting August 24, 2026, alongside single-document copying.

Because a batch copy converts many documents at once, it may take a little longer than copying a single document - you'll see a status indicator (queued or converting) until everything is ready.

You can copy multiple documents at once by copying at the assignment, folder, or class level - each document in that copy will automatically convert to the new editor. Larger copies may take a little longer to fully convert, and you'll see a status indicator while that's in progress.